Hi Wayneo1958
Welcome to SSC. You will find great support from our counselors and a bunch of succesful quitters too. We are here to help you. Helping you helps our quit.
At this stage of your quit there is no physical addiction to fight. Nicotine was out of your body around the fifth day of your quit. So the mental part is the one you are fighting now. Don't call your smoking toughts cravings. There is not physical component in those. It is your brain, your smoker's brain that wants to lure you into the nicotine trap again.
We worked really hard to make our brain a smokers brain. We lit the nasty cigarrettes thousands of times. This was a repetitive task. It is deeply ingrained . We told our brain to associate our smoking with happy and sad times, with hunger,anger,moodiness,boredom,etc.... in other words, with all the possible feelings we had. Our brain is like the Pavlov dog. It was trained to smoke.
Well, now we can train it to be a nonsmoker brain. We have to go trough life not smoking, and our brain will learn. We have to dissasociate every activity in our life with smoking. And the only way to do it is not smoking. So if you use to have a coffee and cigarrette. You have to go trough this. Drink a coffee without the cigarrette. It takes an amount of repetitions to make this
a natural thing. At first you will have to refrain from smoking. But everytime you don't smoke, it becomes easier and more natural to you.
So this is a long process. It requires all of your patience and commitment. It is a hard but empowering journey.And you reap a lot of benefits along the way.
I strongly recommend you to read the Allen Carr Book. It gives a positive approach to this process. It helped me a lot.
Also, stay positive. You are not leaving your best friend behind, you are breaking apart from your worst enemy. The one that got you into the hospital unable to breath.
Every day you stay quit, write down one benefit of not smoking. Write down your 10 reasons to quit and read them every night. And pledge to stay smoke free for the next day. You do this every night. Take one day at a time. One day of freedom at a time. The days will add up.
The smoking toughts are less frequent and intense now, you know it. So be positive. Remember this are smoking toughts your brain sends. Just say NOPE, shouting or smiling or dissmising them as "poor brain, still thinks I'm a smoker, but I'm not"
I use to struggle with weight. The momment I tought like thin person, the moment my struggle with weight ended. With cigarrettes is the same. We have to think as nonsmokers if we want to succeed.Nonsmokers don't think about having just one puff. They don't. They will never want to smoke.
I hope this helps
I'm rooting for your success
Marivi
1/23/2009
Smoke-Free Days: 103
Cigarettes Not Smoked: 1,545
Amount Saved: $154.50
Life Gained:Days: 11
Hrs: 18
Mins: 39
Seconds: 18
